Beast Boy was pacing around the Tower's basement, grumbling as he walked back and forth along the wall underneath the staircase. The fluorescent lights hummed at an unnatural frequency, adding to his annoyance as Cyborg came trotting down the stairs, carrying a strange looking device, which he put down next to several other odd looking contraptions.

"Dude! This is a bad idea!"

The bionic boy barely acknowledged the changeling's presence.

"Whadya say B?" He replied absentmindedly as he began to connect the various modules with a variety of thick and heavy cables.

"This is dangerous Cy! We don't even know what these things are."

"You might not know what they are grass stain, but I do."

"Then would you mind telling us Cyborg." Raven interrupted as she came gliding down the stairs.

Well, if you must know…" He began to explain, pointing at the first of over a dozen modular components he had lined up against the basements single bare wall. "…this is a Heisenberg uncertainty modulator, that's a temporal bifurcator, this one's a spatial resonator and this one, well I'm not sure what this one is, but I'll figure it out." He said as he pointed at a strange looking module that appeared to be made of crystal and was shaped like a pyramid.

"Dude! You're playing with fire." Beast Boy groaned. The strange components that Cyborg was assembling in the basement were the spoils of a victory over the Brotherhood of Evil. The Titans had been hot on the trail of the masterminds of evil for several months and every time they were close to capturing the Brain and his cohorts they always seemed to escape as if by magic. The only thing the Titans ever found were the ruined remains of modules that bore a striking resemblance to the undamaged ones Cyborg was assembling in the basement.

"I know what I'm doing B." The tin man replied.

"We should get the Doom Patrol to help us with this Cy. They know what the Brotherhood's tech is like."

"I don't need their help grass stain." Cyborg snapped at the changeling as he headed towards the stairs.

"Beast Boy's right Cyborg, we should consult with the Doom Patrol on this." Raven interjected.

Cyborg spun around. "I don't need their help. Plus if they come they're gonna wanna keep everything and there's no way I'm letting that happen. And since when do you ever agree with the green bean, Raven?"

The sorceress snapped a reply right back at him.

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day, so don't get any ideas, OK?" She hissed as the changeling's ears drooped.

"Who's getting any ideas?" He replied in a sing song voice as he walked up the stairs. Soon enough he was out of the basement.

Raven turned to Beast Boy.

"Sorry about that Gar, that was a bit harsh. I'll make it up to you." She told him. Raven had felt the wave of pain and hurt emanate from him after she spit out her venomous put down.

"It's OK Rae, I know we have to keep up appearances." He replied. The chromatically challenged pair had become a couple in secret about 5 weeks before. Raven had made the secrecy a condition of their relationship and she was beginning to worry as she saw the toll it was taking on Beast Boy. She had told him that in public she would treat him as she always had, which meant that she would be rude and cruel to him. She was overdoing it though and Beast Boy was beginning to wonder if it was worth it. She wasn't even that good of a kisser, not that they kissed all that much. The only reason they were still together was that Beast Boy was afraid of dumping her and was beginning to hope that she would soon dump him instead.

"I mean it Gar, I'm sorry."

"I know, I know." He replied in a flat voice. He then summoned all his courage.

"Rae, I've been thinking that maybe…"

Before Beast Boy could finish his speech the sound of footsteps was heard coming down the stairs.

"What is it Gar?" She asked in a worried tone, having sensed his anxiety.

"Nothing, it can wait." He replied, relieved to have been saved by the bell. He knew he had to dump her, but was glad he could postpone that unpleasant moment.

Starfire, Robin and Cyborg were carrying the final modules down to the basement and placed them on the floor next to the other modules. Cyborg began to connect them as he had done with the others. Once he was done he hooked up a laptop computer to the largest module and began to type away. As he did this various lights began to flash on the different modules. The pyramid shaped unit began to glow an eerie orange color.

Raven turned to Robin.

"Are you sure this is safe? We don't even know what this device is."

"Relax Raven, Cy knows what he's doing. And we do know what it is, it's a teleportation device. The Brotherhood has been using similar devices to escape capture in the past. We got lucky this time because the self destruct malfunctioned."

"Doesn't that strike you as awfully convenient?" The sorceress asked.

"I have personally inspected each module Raven." Starfire interrupted. "And I have not detected as single one of what you call a booby trap in the modules."

Beast Boy crossed his arms. "I don't know Star, the Brain and Mallah are pretty tricky. I can't imagine that they wouldn't want to pull one on us…"

Cyborg interrupted them.

"Diagnostics are complete! All subsystems are operating within their specified parameters. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to take this baby out for a spin!"

Cyborg began to tap furiously at the oversize keyboard his laptop had while Raven and Beast Boy watched with worried eyes. LEDs and other lights lit up on the modules and began to flash at an increasingly quick rate. The pyramid shaped module began to glow even brighter and changed colors.

Cyborg remained fixated on his laptop screen, mumbling things like "that's odd".

Raven and Beast Boy continued to watch as the pyramid began to glow brighter and brighter while it began to hum rather alarmingly. Beast Boy then noticed a look of panic on Cyborg's face.

"This thing seems to have a mind of its own! Everybody get out while I try to shut it down!"

Cyborg's warning came too late as it was clear that an energy surge was forming in the pyramid. With no warning it discharged in Raven's direction. Beast Boy, guided by his animal instincts, pushed Raven out of harm's way, receiving the brunt of the strange energy emanating from the crystal pyramid.

The changeling screamed in pain as he clutched his temples with his hands, falling to his knees in the process. Raven stared in abject horror as the energy field intensified, engulfing Beast Boy's body. As she watched his body became transparent and she could see his skeleton and internal organs.

Starfire ran to Cyborg's side in a vain attempt to assist him. "Friend Beast Boy is disintegrating! We must help him!" She shouted.

"Cyborg!" Raven screamed in panic. "Can't you stop this thing?"

Starfire turned around to face her gray friend. "It is too late to stop the process Raven; if we do Beast Boy will die. We must find a way to reverse what is happening!"

Raven's heart sank into the pit of her stomach. How could they possibly reverse the process? Tears ran down her cheeks as the grim reality of the situation hit her: Gar was going to die while she watched. By this point all that was left of him within the energy field was his skeleton and that too was beginning to dissolve. She fell to her knees and closed her eyes.

Goodbye Gar, I'll never forget you, I promise.

As she reopened her eyes all that was left was the energy field. Raven winced in pain. Part of her had just died with Beast Boy. She remained on her knees and dropped her head. Several tube shaped fluorescent lights exploded in the distance. She had never felt so numb her entire life and at that moment she wasn't sure the numbness would ever go away.

As Raven continued to grieve her loss she heard Cyborg speak up.

"Hey! I think I got it!" He yelled as he continued to pound on the keyboard while Starfire made mysterious adjustments to the modules.

"Friend Cyborg! It is working! Look!" Starfire exclaimed.

Raven opened her eyes and saw a skeleton begin to reform itself inside of the energy field. Her heart leaped with hope. As she continued to watch she saw his organs reappear and soon his body was no longer transparent. Raven held her breath and felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Robin.

"I think he's going to make it Raven, I really do!" He spoke, his voice brimming with hope.

Soon enough the energy became weaker and Beast Boy's figure, now a silhouette against the bright energy field, slumped over and fell to the ground. Raven tried to bolt towards him but Robin held her back. She turned and glared at him.

"Just a moment Raven." Starfire commanded her. "We must wait for the energy field to subside. Then you will be able to tend to your beloved."

Raven did a double take at the Tamaranian. Robin was still beside her and gave her a reassuring rub on her shoulder.

"We know Raven, we all know." He told her.

While it only took a few minutes for the energy field to disappear it felt like an eternity to the sorceress. Soon enough Cyborg gave the all clear signal and Robin released her. She bolted to Beast Boy's side, and he began to sit up as soon as she reached him.

It was then that Raven noticed that something was wrong. Beast Boy wasn't wearing his Doom Patrol costume; he was wearing a strange looking black outfit that appeared to be made of leather. His head was shaved and was covered with strange and sinister tattoos, some of which she recognized as the glyphs that had appeared on her own body when she became the portal. He also wasn't green. The teen opened his eyes and rubbing his temples he sat up. It was then that Raven felt as if she had been smacked on the side of her head with a 2 by 4. She gasped as she felt pure and utter evil emanate from the boy. She recoiled from him and dashed away, running into Starfire.

"Raven, what is wrong? Is friend Beast Boy injured?"

Raven was barely able to speak and summoning all her will power she croaked out a reply.

"That isn't Garfield."

TtTtTt TtTtTt TtTtTt

Beast Boy moaned as he regained consciousness. His head felt like it was about to explode from the pain which thankfully was beginning to subside. The pain had been so intense that it blinded and deafened him. He remained on the floor, in a fetal position as he panted. His sense of smell was the only one that worked at the moment and from what his olfactory organs told him something was off.

The next sense to return to the changeling was his sense of hearing. He felt reassured as he discerned familiar voices that were engaged in a still unintelligible conversation: Cyborg, Robin, Raven and … Blackfire? Suddenly the conversation became intelligible to him.

"See Raptor, I told you he would be fine." Cyborg announced. Beast Boy thought the tin man's voice sounded odd, almost off key. He figured it was a side effect of the concussion he was sure he had.

"No thanks to you idiots!" Raven snarled back in reply. Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief, the energy discharge had not hit her.

"Relax Raptor. My sensors show that he's fine. Other than a head splitting headache nothing's wrong with him." Cyborg replied.

Who's Raptor? Beast Boy wondered to himself. He blinked a few times and noticed that he could see again.

"Don't you tell me to relax! You almost killed him!" Raven hissed in reply. "He almost died."

At this point Beast Boy sat up. He noticed that a bright energy field still surrounded him. All he could see of his friends were silhouettes. He opened him mouth to speak but no sound came out. He remained in his sitting position on the floor.

"Wait Raptor." Blackfire's voice spoke. "You have to wait until the energy field is gone. Then you can have your boy toy back."

Beast Boy continued to stare at the shrouded figures.

Dude, I really must have got zapped good, Star sounds just like her sister.

After two more minutes the energy field was gone. Now finally able to see his friends, Beast Boy stared incredulously at the sight before him. Cyborg's tech was gray colored instead of blue and he had thermal blasters built into both of his arms. Robin was dressed in black and had a large scar on his face and Blackfire, and yes it was Blackfire, was draped seductively over him. But what clearly took his breath away was the gray skinned, violet haired girl who was running up to him. She was dressed in what looked like a slave girl costume. She wore a black bra that hardly covered her cleavage and she was wearing a loincloth and from her exposed hips it was obvious she was wearing nothing else underneath it. As she approached him she frowned.

"Who the hell are you?" She barked at him. "What have you done with my lover?"

Without getting up Beast Boy scooted away from the strange looking Raven. He did a crab crawl until he bumped into the wall behind him.

"I asked you a question." She snarled. "What did you do with him?"

The changeling continued to stare at his girlfriend's doppelganger.

"I didn't do anything to him." He squeaked. "I don't even know who he is."

Cyborg approached Raven and cleared his throat.

"I have some bad news Raptor."

"Bad? What do you mean by 'bad news'? Explain yourself you walking scrap heap! You said this would be safe!"

Cyborg sighed."Believe it or not, this is Garfield."

"Are you insane? He's green for Trigon's sake!"

Cyborg examined a panel in his arm.

"It's him alright. He even has that wacky animal DNA."

"So why is he green? Did your stupid experiment change him? If he's damaged there's gonna be hell to pay."

Cyborg continued to study his scanner.

"Whoa! This can't be right!"

"What is it Vic?" The black clad youth asked.

"You're not gonna believe this Nightwing, but his quantum signature doesn't match ours."

Nightwing slammed his fist on the table.

"You mean he's from another dimension?" Raptor asked.

Cyborg nodded his head.

"Well then, send him back and bring my Gar home."

Cyborg shook his head.

"No can do. Right after he materialized the system did a reset, a cold boot. The memory was wiped clean. I don't know what dimension he came from."

Beast Boy saw Raptor ball her fists. Her jaw began to tremble. Then with no warning she regained her composure and relaxed, and turned towards him.

"What's your name, your real name?" She asked him.

Beast Boy gulped before replying.

"Garfield Mark Logan."

The girl who looked like his sweetheart gave him a sinister grin.

"Well Garfield, today is your lucky day. You get to take my Gar's place as my lover."

"Your lover?" Beast Boy choked.

Blackfire laughed.

"You are a lucky bitch Raptor! He's still a virgin!"

Raptor got close enough to Beast Boy so that when she crouched they were face to face. Beast Boy looked panic stricken.

"Are you a virgin?" She asked him.

The green boy nodded with a petrified look on his face.

"Don't worry sweetie, I'll be gentle with you." She teased him.

She stood up in front of him and noticed that he was staring at her bare hips.

"Don't worry Gar; we're going to be good friends. And I can be very generous, this is for you."

Raptor grabbed her loin cloth and raised it, exposing her womanhood to the petrified changeling, who went bug eyed.

The other 3 "Titans" began to laugh and were joined by Raptor who lowered her loincloth as she continued to laugh.

Beast Boy finally summoned the courage to ask them a question.

"Who are you guys?"

Raptor grinned at him. He felt a chill run down his spine. This girl looked just like Raven, but she was an entirely different person.

"You mean you don't know?" She replied.

He shook his head.

"We're the Hive 5." Blackfire replied.

TtTtTt TtTtTt TtTtTt

I'm kind of stuck with my other story "Joker's Shadow", so while I figure out how to finish that story I decided to start another one.

Anyway, I hope I can keep your interest with this story.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.